My 2018 Year in Review as a Financial Coach

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My 2018 Year in Review as a Financial Coach

I know that on a blog is can be hard to get to know someone versus following me on Instagram (@mandyythomas), so I wanted to share something a little more personal here! I want to share a review of 2018.

In 2018 I completed my first full year as an online financial coach. I grew my business all year and helped more people than the previous year. I worked with clients in four different countries to learn how to feel more confident managing their everyday finances and ending their money anxiety. I made really big changes to my business in how I structure it, how I coach my clients and I created systems to make it as efficient and streamlined where I could.

My favorite course that I took this year was by far the Financial Coach Academy, which is a program that helps financial coaches so they can more effectively work with and serve their clients. I loved every single minute of this course and I re-structured my business and I love how I am able to help individuals and couples now because of my new knowledge! I am constantly investing in myself to be a better coach for myself and in turn my clients.

This year I began my blog as a way to be able to share more valuable content to help you improve your finances and your mental health that is affected by your financial situation. I feel like there aren’t enough people talking about this connection, so it is very important to me that I am as open and vulnerable about it to spread this desperately needed awareness!

Places I Traveled to in 2018:

I traveled to Phoenix, Arizona for a non-work related vacation, it was definitely much needed! The heat was amazing considering I was sneaking away during winter in Canada.

I went hiking at Lake Louise, Alberta and we stayed overnight at Bow Hut. I absolutely love hiking and it’s something that I want to do more of in my life. It was so cool to not just go for a day hike but to stay overnight on the hike. For me hiking is just such a privilege because my whole mental & physical body just love soaking up how beautiful nature really is. I didn’t have cell service which was actually a blessing in disguise and it felt fantastic to do a little digital detox. Something that I recommend you do every now and then.

I went to Orlando, Florida for FinCon which is a convention for the online financial space. It’s not a stuffy financial event or what you would picture when you first hear financial convention. It was a huge blast where I learned so much and connected with many people who are in a similar space as myself as a financial coach. When I was at FinCon I got to stay with and meet one of mentors Kelsa Dickey, which was absolutely a highlight of 2018 for me.

I went to San Diego, California for Angie Lee’s Pays to Be Brave event. San Diego totally stole my heart, I fell in love with how beautiful it is there, but I also loved that the traffic wasn’t insane like it is in LA. I met up with so many of my “internet” friends and finally got to hang out with them in person. This is the second time that I have got to hug and learn from Angie Lee in person, which was such a high vibe experience. I was also a co-coach in her Wellpreneur Mastermind which was a high-level mastermind for health/wellness and life coaches, I had an absolute blast sharing my knowledge with these women as I helped to coach them in their businesses!

Each time we traveled anywhere, we stayed in Airbnb’s (except for hiking up the mountain!). I love staying in Airbnb’s because not only is it typically a fraction of the cost of a hotel room, I also have a kitchen available which is super important to me and I get to stay in some pretty cool places!

This Year was My Year of “Tribe”

I’ve never felt like I had a tight-knit group of women that I connected with deeply before. This past year I cultivated the most amazing women that I could ever have dreamed of and I am forever grateful for each and every one of them. If you are feeling like you want more deep connection and tribe in your life, I recommend reading the book by the amazing Lori Harder (who I had the privilege of hearing speak in San Diego) called A Tribe Called Bliss.

I Gave Someone a Place to Stay for the Summer

A personal goal that I have had for quite a while has been to give someone a place to stay when they need it. Many people helped me out when I needed a place to stay in the various different stages of my life, so I wanted to be able to do the same. My girlfriend was needing a place to stay this summer when she was working as a summer student and I we were able to let her stay at our house for the summer for free. It was an amazing feeling to be in a financial situation to be able to do this.

Financial Coaching Client Wins & Transformations!

I absolutely love what I do, so I wanted to highlight and share some of my favorite client stories and transformations over the past year and to give them credit for committing to themselves:

A client paid off $14,000 of credit card debt

Another client paid off $30,000 of credit card debt

A client paying off $12,000 in student loan debt in 7 months

A client saved $911 in her first week of coaching

A client saved $1500 in her first month of coaching

A client saved $3300 in her first week of coaching

A client paid off $7000 in debt in 40 days

A lovely client feeling so much less anxious because she now had her finances organized and she was managing her money well

A client getting her finances together and being able to leave her 9-5. That wasn’t even the intention when we started working together, but she made such improvements that she was able to. She was able to travel to multiple different countries and work from her laptop because we improved her finances so much!

In our first session, one of my clients saved $300+ in her subscription fees alone. Many of them she had no idea she was paying for until we did a deep dive into her finances!

In just our first session, one of my clients saved $170 a month that she was paying in banking fees, that she had no idea she was paying. Just from helping her to realize that one expense and how much it truly was costing her, it paid for her session right there. Let alone all of the other money we saved for her.

Many other clients paying off credit cards, finally having emergency funds for the first time and making huge improvements in their finances!

My Favorite Books from My Reading List of 2018:

I am a huge book reader, although this year was the least amount of books I read in the past few years. I ended the year reading 29 books this year. I want to share with you, my favorite books that I read in 2018, broken down into the category that they belong to.

Financial:

Self Development:

Relationships:

The 5 Love Languages – Gary Chapman (this was the second time I’ve read this). Every single person should be required to read this book! The awareness that you will gain about yourself and your partner, is so valuable for strengthening or improving or even saving, your relationship.

Speeches I Presented:

How to Succeed at Budgeting Your Personal Finances to Grow Your Business Faster & With Less Financial Stress – Square One, Regina, SK
How to Succeed at Budgeting Your Personal Finances to Grow Your Business Faster & With Less Financial Stress – Women Entrepreneurs of Sask

This was feedback that I recieved from my budgeting workshop, “This was so great, thank you. Mandyy was spot on with the emotional and physical side of financial stress and this was the most practical and realistic budget guide I’ve seen so far. Makes me excited to get into it!” Jade

Videos I Made:

I created this video to help people understand where they currently are at with their finances and the different “levels” of the financial pyramid. I find tha tit has been so helpful to really put the bigger picture into perspective and help them to see where they really want to go. I would love if you would watch this video to get clarity of where you are at financially and where you want to be.

My Favorite Health Products & Supplements:

I did go to school to study Holistic Nutrition so I want to share with you the supplements that I loved using this past year. [Disclaimer – Make sure to consult with your doctor prior to beginning any supplementation]

Favorite Health Products

Magnesium: I take magnesium before bed to help with sleep, relaxation, reducing stress and muscle soreness. I also always take magnesium before I fly to reduce muscle cramps and leg soreness.

Vitamin B-100: I take B vitamins for mental & brain health, for energy, adrenal health, digestion and so many more things!

Probiotics: I take a probiotic to help with my gut health because it’s something I am very passionate about. I have struggled with many digestive problems in the past and I know the connection between your gut health and your brain and mental health, so I make sure to provide “healthy bacteria” for my gut!

Chromium Picolinate: I use this to help balance my blood sugar levels, for healthy metabolism and more efficient use of carbohydrates and for helping with elevating mood.

Soul CBD: I use this CBD oil (there is no THC in here and you don’t get high from it) and I take it as a liquid under my tongue. Personally, I use it for joint pain, feelings of anxiety and to help me sleep. I take Soul CBD before bed each night and I really like using it to wind down for the evening.

Business Tools/Systems I’m Loving Using:

Tailwind: I use this to help with scheduling my blog posts on Pinterest, to help save me time and to be effective in promoting my financial coaching.

I use the Hashtag Files to help me have access to many different hashtags for promoting my content on Instagram. This helps me to always be reaching a wider audience, but to save time with researching them myself.

I love using Acuity to book in my clients and potential clients. It’s been a game changer for me as I have it set up to send out reminders for client appointments ahead of time and I also use it as an onboarding system which saves me a lot of hours each month.

I love using Zoom as my communication tool with my clients. By using Zoom I am able to work with financial coaching clients who live all across Canada, the US and internationally! I love that it gives me the ability to do so! I also use it to chat with my friends who don’t like close to me either.

I LOVE Trello as my organizational system. I have all different boards and then break them each down. I love to be able to do a brain dump in there and have it organized, but out of my head so I don’t forget.

I use JotForm for my contracts for my clients to fill out. The best part? It’s free! There are tons of other contract signing apps/services out there but there are less friendly and you have to pay for them!

What I Added to My Free Resource Library

I created a short freebie that will help you to start becoming confident with how you are managing the good money that you are bringing in. If you want to download it for free, just click on the picture below!

My Plans for 2019:

In 2019 I want to work with even more people coaching them on their finances and I want to work with people from more countries! Last year I worked with people in 4 different countries, so I would like to at least double that number this year! I want to give more presentations of my Budgeting for Happiness, Success & Personal Transformation as well as be a guest on podcasts to share the connection of your financial situation to your mental health and how you can start improving your finances right now. I want to continue to be an advocate of financial literacy and encourage more people to open up about talking about their money and seeing money as less of a “taboo” topic, because that only makes the issues worse.

As for trips this year, I am hoping to travel a little bit less this year. So far I have two trips planned to go to Arizona and I will be going hiking somewhere again this summer. But we will see if my travel schedule changes as the year progresses!

Personal Goals for 2019:

One of my personal goals that I have for 2019 are to get back into shape again and to work out more. Sitting so often at my desk definitely took a toll on my body and I am going to be more intentional about moving my body more each and every day! I didn’t work out nearly as often as I wanted to in 2018, so instead of just saying that my goal is to get into better shape, I am going to be very vulnerable and post a picture of what I looked like when I finished the year in 2018 and my “starting” point going into 2019. I am all about being open, transparent, committing to yourself and staying accountable, so I am walking the walk by posting this photo below.

I encourage you to do the same to hold you accountable to your goals this year, tell someone else about them or announce them on social media. Tell someone else what your financial goals are for 2019 so you have a higher chance of achieving them!

I hope you enjoyed reading my review of 2018, I had fun writing it for you!

Let me know what you enjoyed reading the most from this post! Comment below and I will reply back to you!

Want to join a supportive group of women as you go through your money journey? Join my women’s Facebook group Confident Everyday Money to completely change your money situation so it is one you are proud of.